Recovering Noah

Here are some pictures that we took over Thanksgiving and with some of our "India" buddies. Our friends Craig and Stephanie have adopted 3 amazingly beautiful girls from India (the middle daughter, Emma, is from the same orphanage in Calcutta as Noah). They came over last Friday and the girls had a blast dressing up in their fancy dresses. Noah and Eli wouldn't wear their outfits, but as you can see in one pic, Eli did manage to don his Halloween dragon costume. As far as the other pictures go, the cute couple holding Nandini is my cousin Tyler and his fiancee, Mary. My beautiful cousin, Tiffany, is holding Eli - and if your eyes were blinded by the absolute beauty of the next photo, then you must've come across Simeon holding Noah. Talk about two handsome fellas! :-) There ya have it. A look through our family photo album. Leslie

Yea!!! Yes, we're still alive. I know it's been more than a week since I last blogged - but, believe me, there was good reason. First of all, I ended up in the ER with severe dehydration from my non-thinking decision to have a Sprite (with ice!) at a McDonald's in Delhi. I was finally able to hold food down come Thanksgiving and overindulged just a bit. Well, the bacteria or amboeba's or whatever it was had a field day and I really paid for it. Let's just say that I got seriously acquainted with our toilet - at eye level - and I will never, ever, ever go that long without cleaning it again. Eeeewwwww. The second reason that I haven't blogged is because I've been 100% sleep deprived. Sim, too. Nandini decided that she could manage just fine sleeping only 4 hours a night. And, actually, that's about how much Noah slept for the first 9 months he was home, but he was our first so we were able to adjust to his schedule. But, now, we've got 2 others at ho...

Okay, I know. I know. I am going way overboard on the pictures. But they're so cute!! :-) Also, I wanted everyone to witness firsthand Nandini's terrible sense of fashion. I am removing myself from all responsibility for how she appears in public. I am warning everyone that she may very well show up to church on Sunday in tights, biker boots, and a purple sparkly Indian top. She is soooooooo determined and knows what she wants. She will quickly tell us if she doesn't want to wear what we picked out. In fact, she wants to pick out all her clothes and refuses to let us dress her. If we do, she's got them all off the second we turn around. She will definitely be one of those kids you see in Walmart who's wearing a tutu, cowboy boots, fairy wings, and a wooly hat. She loves her robe that Auntie Liza brought back from Uzbekistan (thanks Farida!) and insisted on wearing it with the biker boots that Amy brought over today. (BTW, those kids in the pic belong to Amy. She ha...

Hey, just wanted to post some new pics of Nandini that we took this afternoon. My luggage finally arrived - with my camera. Yea! So, we've been snapping away. Will try to update with a proper post later on tonight. I am still reeling from jet lag and that darn stomach virus I caught. My mom has it, too, and we think it might be the fountain drinks we had at the McDonald's in Karol Baugh a few hours before we boarded the plane. We were so good about not drinking the water... it didn't occur to us at the time that the fountain drinks are made with the local water. But let me tell you, the Paneer Salsa Wrap they had was the best thing I've ever eaten. I might start a petition to get the U.S. McDonald's to start putting it on their menu. :-) Nandini's taking a nap. Her sleeping patterns are so messed up. She went to bed at 1:00am last night and woke up at 5:00. For a child that spent three years learning how to put herself to sleep on her own, she sure has gotten us...

Sorry for the photo quality. I have no idea what happened. We tried every single setting, but they all came out blurry. When we got home, Sim said, "So... did you try cleaning the lense?" Hmmm, maybe that was it! Now, we have a bunch of blurry photos because we weren't smart enough to wipe off the lense. But I'll post them anyway. Leslie

We're home!! Well, we're at my mom's house - but we're headed to our place in a few hours. We managed to get through the maze of both the New Delhi International Airport and the atrocious Charles De Gualle airport. I am never, ever, ever, ever, ever, going to fly through CDG again. It's a nightmare - especially if you're flying American Airlines. Speaking of which.... I am never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever flying AA again. I'm not being anti-patriotic by saying that. I just can't stand the airlines. They make international flying so difficult. I understand and appreciate that they are being as thorough as possible with security checks... but we waited in line for over 2 1/2 hours to get through their security. And we were the 4th in line! Can you imagine my mom standing there for 2 1/2 hours with a fussy, impatient baby. And no, I'm not talking about Nandini. She was good as gold. I'm talking about me. I about lost it... nearly becoming an emb...

This is our last day in India. In fact, we leave for the airport in a few hours. Can you believe I'm going to miss it here? I know, I know, I must have a multitude of problems, right? Just a day ago, I was crying and boo-hooing over how I couldn't wait to get home, but now that the day has actually arrived, I'm a little sad. I know part of it has to do with the fact that I dread getting back to my routine - dealing with autism and diets and Eli (oops, did I say that? lol) and temper fits and Walmart. :-) But I'm also going to miss India. I have just gotten used to it and now we have to leave. I wonder if mom and dad will watch the kids for 10 days next year and Sim and I can go on holiday here. That would be really cool - although I have a feeling my parents will say, "no". :-O Or more like, "HECK NO!". We went out today with my friends Sudhir and Kavitha. They're a riot - a lot of fun. Nandini refuses to come to me and Mom had to carry her for ...

Wow, this has been a FANTASTIC day! I'm so sorry for all the doom and gloom of my previous posts. I know it makes for pretty depressing blog reading. But I think it must have gotten a lot of you to pray for us - because today was a complete turnaround! Nandini spent the morning crying, but she perked up as soon as we left the hotel. We finally had another "A-ha!" lightbulb moment when we realized why she hates the hotel so much. She loves the hustle and bustle of India. That's what she's used to - not the quiet room of of just three people. Remember, she shared her room with 22 other kids. She's used to the noise and the sound of the traffic outside. We were gone all day today. We started off at the doctor's office. We went yesterday at 4:00 because it says he's open from 4-6 pm. But he wasn't in and we were told to come back today. So we got there at 9:00 and waited for an hour and 40 minutes. At 10:40 his Mercedes pulled up and he came in. The wh...

I miss the boys so much that I can't stand it! I can only imagine how much their lives are going to be turned upside down when we get back home. All of our lives. It's worth it, of course, but we are SO tired and Nandini is SO fussy and grieving. It's just been really hard. I woke up with a rash all over my chest this morning. Nandini's been itching her hair. We checked for lice, but didn't see anything. I'm praying it's not lice. Can you imagine us doing a lice treatment on the whole family? How on earth would we be able to do that to Noah? The chemicals alone would set him back months. Nandini is still having a very hard time. In my head, I know this is normal and will last months and months, but in my heart, I just want it to stop. I want to comfort her and she won't let me. I feel completely helpless here. She just cries and cries. We do get a few smiles every now and then, but then she realizes she's letting her guard down and she puts it right ...

Well, we made it to Delhi. It took us over 2 1/2 hours to get to our hotel. I spoke to a friend of mine in New Delhi and he said the area we're staying in is the most congested area of all New Delhi. Good for cheap shopping, but even he said he only comes to the Karol Baugh area once a year. The traffic is unreal. 4 lane roads condensed to one lane because people park their cars in the middle of the road. And that one lane is crowded with cars coming both ways... not just cars, but motorcycles, bicycles, cows pulling carts, people pulling carts, people pedaling on bike rickshaws, people walking, cars honking, and stray dogs running across the road. I have never seen anything like it. It is so unreal. Our driver couldn't find our hotel, so he just stopped the car in the middle of the road and left us. Didn't say a word. We had no idea where he was, we were just left in the middle of the road with all these faces staring at us. Finally he came back. I guess the directions he ...

Okay, it's 8:40am on Wednesday morning. We leave for the airport in a little over an hour. I should be up in my room packing, but wanted to nip down to the computer station and send a quick update. Nandini is really sick right now. She's been running over 100 temperature and has a bad cough and cold. We think she has a double ear infection, too, as she's been pulling at her ears and whining. We are REALLY dreading the flight to New Delhi. Fortunately, it's only 2 hours. Now, if the ear infection is not cleared up by our 28 hour journey home on Saturday then I'm thinking that Mom and I might just have to take advantage of the free alcohol they serve on the plane. Just kidding. Well, maybe. Nandini didn't sleep well last nigt. We kept taking turns laying her on our chest and elevating her head. She's so small for a 3 year old. She's tall, but just seems so small. She's got the tiniest little face I've ever seen. She finally went #2 in the potty. Po...

Hey, I just wanted to post a quick update about Nandini. I posted the first update this morning and it's now 8:00 at night on Tuesday - and Nandini is slowly starting to emerge. She slept through the night and had a good breakfast. She was still really shy and mechanical with us through the morning. We ordered pizza for lunch (can you believe the best Pizza Hut I've ever tasted is in India??) and she ate a bit. She seems to love anything made with bread. Anyway, she has a terrible cough and fever, so we gave her some medicine and we tried to put her down for a nap. She didn't really sleep, but in a strange way, I think she sort of bonded with us over being sick. We were taking care of her and stroking her hair and rubbing her back - and I think she just started to let go a bit. She's really picking up on things. I sat in front of her and she played "Beauty Shop" with my hair and combed it and tried putting it in a ponytail. She also colored a bit and played wi...

Well, here we are. It's 9:00 in the morning and we just finished eating breakfast. Nandini ate almost a whole piece of buttered toast, some scrambled eggs, mango, pineapple, and a bit of idli (a South Indian dish). She's got a terrible cough and cold, so we're going to introduce her to the world of icky cough syrup in a minute. I may let Mom take care of that one. lol. Okay, where to begin? No matter what I'm about to write, just know that today is better. When we went to the orphanage yesterday, we spent about an hour doing formalities and going over paperwork. Finally, they took us to the school room where the informal school was going on. It's a bit like preschool. Anyway, there were about 10 kids in there and when we opened the door, Nandini and another little girl came running over to us and started hugging us and begging to be picked up. I was so excited because I couldn't believe she ran over to me like that. Then, she realized who I was and she went int...

In 40 minutes, we are leaving to meet my daughter for the very first time! Right now, Mom is sitting in the hotel restaurant chowing down on South Indian food and chatting with a couple from CT that is also meeting their daughter today. I, however, can't stomach a thing. I'm so nervous and excited that I'm afrad to eat. The good news is that my belly is getting smaller. lol. Seriously, though, I'm afraid to eat because I just don't want to chance getting sick or anything. The food's been great, but nerves are getting the best of me.We're in Pune now - the City of Nandini. :-) It is GORGEOUS here. I love Pune. It's completely different from the part of New Delhi that we're staying at. The Seasons Service Apartments are really nice. There's a pool and an indoor playground. The orphanage is two blocks away and we saw some of the kids sitting in the window when we drove by yesterday. When we got here, I had a terrible migraine and went to bed immedia...

We're here! We arrived last night at 11:30pm.... after 28 hours of travelling. And we are exhausted!First of all, the flight from Brussels to New Delhi was excellent. I cannot recommend Jet Airways enough. They treated us like stars. The service was fanastic, the food was incredible, and the in-flight entertainment system was awesome. (How do you like all those adjectives? lol). Anyway, we finally landed... and our greeter wasn't there! We waited an hour and a half - and were dripping with sweat. It was midnight and about 90 degrees. So, I called the greeter guy that Holt gave us and his phone was turned off. We finally found a really nice guy to help us out and he let us use his phone and helped us buy a ticket for a prepaid taxi. I was so grateful - and a bit disoriented - that I tipped 1000 rupees. Yeah, that's right. 1000 rupees. Mom scared me to death when she calculated that I'd just given a stranger $260 dollars.Thank goodness she's bad at math (as I obviousl...

The Countdown Begins In 40 minutes, we are leaving to meet my daughter for the very first time! Right now, Mom is sitting in the hotel restaurant chowing down on South Indian food and chatting with a couple from CT that is also meeting their daughter today. I, however, can't stomach a thing. I'm so nervous and excited that I'm afraid to eat. The good news is that my belly is getting smaller. lol . Seriously, though, I'm afraid to eat because I just don't want to chance getting sick or anything. The foods been great, but nerves are getting the best of me. We're in Pune now - city of Nandini . :-) It is GORGEOUS here. I love Pune . It's completely different from the part of New Delhi we're staying at. The Seasons Service Apartments are really nice. There's a pool and an indoor playground. The orphanage is two blocks away and we saw some of the kids sitting in the window when we drove by yesterday. When we got here, I had a terrible migraine ...

Well, I don't have anything insightful to post, but thought I'd pop in and say that we made it safely to Europe. Just another 16 hours to go. Ugh. I always thought my bottom had a lot of cushion, but let me tell you, it is ACHING. We are going to look for something good to eat, but everything is written in French. Hello, people! English is the universal language. (Just kidding. That was for you, Geri). And I did complete 2 years of college French, but I can definitely say that it's not like riding a bicycle. It has not come back to me. So, we may starve. Except my mom packed a bag of mini-sized Snickers on her carry-on. God Bless Her. Okay, just a quick note to say hi. I'm not sure when we will get another chance to use the computer. We are anxiously waiting to get to India and soak it all in. I cannot believe that we'll be meeting Nandini for the first time on Monday. Can you believe it??? Oh, and if you want a good, inspiring read, then check out "Lea...

Well..... the big day has arrived! We are leaving for India in a few hours. I cannot believe it's all about to happen. When we started the process back in January, we were hoping that Nandini would be home by March. 2008. And look at us now. We're about to leave, and she'll be back for Thanksgiving. Thank you God! So, I have all my bags packed. I ended up packing 18 outfits for Nandini. But you can mix and match, so really the possibilities are endless. And since she'll only be with us for 5 days before we leave for back home, I'm thinking that I overpacked. Or maybe it was my dad saying, "Are you crazy? Do you really need all that stuff? How are you going to carry her and lug that suitcase all over the world? You only need two outfits. Have you ever heard of washing dirty clothes? Huh? Tell me. Have you?" Therefore, after careful consideration, I was able to weed out 5 outfits - leaving us with 13. I mean, it's going to be 90 degrees there. I'm ...

Now that I refuse to let autism rule my life, I'm able to see the humor in it. Okay, sometimes. Usually after having a bit of chocolate. But we all knew that, didn't we? So, anyway, I thought I'd post this picture that I took of Noah. Only another mother of a child with autism can understand. It's Noah discovering that Nandini's Swan Princess Barbie Carriage is much better than those stinkin' Hot Wheels that he's been playing with all these years. Oooh! Big, huge, gigantic wheels. That spin. And they're so pretty. Go Barbie! :-) Noah's Mom

It's 8:00 in the morning and the kids are asleep. Eli finally went to bed around 6:30 - this morning. Which means that I am one tired mamacita . He's doing better now, but started running between 103 - 104 temperature last night. I have no idea what it is, but he gets these little episodes about 2x a year. He'll get a sky high fever, stay up all night shivering and whining, and then be fine in the morning. It's happened about 6 times in the last 3 years. Very weird. Of course we're not complete ogres. We did break out the pharmaceuticals. Thank goodness for dye-free Motrin. Which reminded me that I need to pack some of that and some dye-free Benadryl for the trip. Both Noah and Eli got really sick once they left the confines of the orphanage, so I want to be prepared for Nandini - and I'm hoping that Eli's episode last night didn't occur simply to remind me to pack medicine. You know, as a premonition of what's to come on the trip. Have I ever m...